The present invention relates to an identification carrier intended for electrical lines or wires and with a two-winged sleeve-like body that surrounds the line and has a projection on one face and an accommodation for the projection on the other.
Identification carriers of this type are employed to identify lines that have already been connected. In contrast to closed identification sleeves, which are slipped on before the line is connected and cannot be released from it, the problem arises of adequately securing the identification carrier to the line once it has been mounted on it.
The body of a known identification carrier of this genus, as described in German Pat. No. 2 655 958, is in a practical way a cylindrical slotted sleeve with a projection in the form of a point on one face and an accommodation in the form of a matching notch on the other. Even when the material that a sleeve of this type is made out of has a certain inherent elasticity, however, its seating on the line will be reliable only if the line has a very specific cross-section. This is not the case for the wide range of lines being considered in the present context. Although the lateral projections and accommodations can prevent the identification carriers from rotating in relation to each other when a series of them is mounted on one line, as often occurs in practice, they do not prevent the carriers from separating from each other along the line.
To facilitate handling and storage, moreover, the identification carrier described in the aforesaid document is manufactured in one piece with a common injection-molded strip. They are slipped all together onto a supporting rod, which can also be connected to a reinforcing rod, by means of the strip and stored on the rod after the strip has been removed. This procedure is relatively complicated and necessitates additional accessories, specifically the reinforced supporting rod.
Identification devices that involve separate strips of material tensioned tightly like a strap around a cable, pipe, or similar structure and then provided with the actual identification carrier are also known from German Pat. Nos. 1 139 368 and 1 181 511. It is easy to conceive how complicated they are in design and to mount when identifying a relatively thick cable or pipe. They must also be secured reliably on the cable. This solution is unsatisfactory for the identification of already connected electric lines when it is necessary to rapidly establish the correct identification, which may also involve a large number of characters, possibly from a large number of identification carriers, and secure it to the line.
The seating of another known identification carrier German Pat. No. 1 207 203 and Offenlegungsschrift No. 2 648 421, which is essentially a sleeve with two wings, is also not very satisfactory for a wide range of line cross-sections. It is impossible to prevent these identification carriers from rotating in relation to or separating from each other when they are mounted. Cementing the two wings of the carrier as proposed in the latter document also entails the additional drawback of making it difficult to alter the identification of the line, which can only be done by destroying the existing identification carrier, when the circuitry is rewired.